Tips on Creating a Caring Environment for Those with Dementia

Living with dementia causes a lot of confusion and stress that is not always reasonable or fully understood. Caring for someone with dementia can be extra complicated. Making a caring environment for your loved one is not as hard as it may seem if you take some time to evaluate your situation and do a little problem solving. Here are a few steps you can take to make someone with dementia feel more comfortable and even help them thrive in their environment.

Understand
The first step to creating a positive environment for someone with dementia is to know what issues they tend to have and how their lives are made harder by other environments. Some of the factors that are a part of dementia are:

– Memory Impairment – Forgetting people and things they have done are some of the most common traits of dementia. Sometimes they even forget where they are or how to do something.

– Reasoning Issues – Most people that suffer from dementia have a hard time predicting end results to their actions and have issues with relatively logical things.

– Learning Problems – Mainly due to memory issues, they have a hard time learning new things.

– Stress – Most dementia sufferers get stressed out often due to the confusion and forgetfulness.

– Environment & Feeling Sensitivity – Because of the confusion involved, they are very sensitive to their environment and how they are feeling. They will pay attention to it to give them clues or help them keep track of things, so environment is important.

Assess & Solve
Once you are aware of what people with dementia suffer from and what tends to make their symptoms worse or cause them to get hurt, it will be easier to assess their living environment. Whether it is your own home or their home or even a care home, it is important to evaluate possible problems and fix them in order to make them as happy and comfortable as possible. Some elements of a home or apartment that should be checked into include:

– Rugs – Tend to cause confusion because dementia patients aren’t sure if they should step on around them or not

– Shiny floors – Sometimes shiny floors appear wet to people with dementia and will make it hard for them to figure out how to walk on them.

– Dangerous objects – Sharp corners and objects should be kept away as well as lighters and other things that they may forget how to use and end up causing great harm with.

– Lighting – Easily accessible and usable lighting should be everywhere in the house and nice and bright to aid their vision and comprehension.

– Noise – Quiet environments are the best for dementia patients and minimized white noise as well.

– Modern Technology – Sometimes modern things can help them but other times people with dementia prefer older things that they can remember how to use.

– Mirrors – Mirrors tend to cause confusion and fear if they do not recognize themselves.

Other Tips
Some other good tips would be to label things so that they can navigate their environment easier and figure things out for themselves. Also, remember that you cannot predict every fear or issue someone with dementia may encounter. There is no such thing as a perfect environment, but there can definitely be a careful and loving environment. Many times it can be something very odd and unpredictable, and the best thing you can do is pay attention to that specific person and figure out what tends to trigger them and use that experience to guide future interactions.

About Guided Living Senior Home Care
Guided Living offers home health care services serving Plymouth, MA and the surrounding areas. Our mission is to assist our clients with improving quality of life, encouraging independence within their home and providing first-class care with respect, dignity, compassion and the highest ethical standards.We have incorporated great technology into the company like our FamilyCARES portal that gives families a real time look into their loved one’s care. One of our goals is to build trust and show accountability to clients and their families through transparency.

We take care management seriously and each client has a dedicated Registered Nurse Care Manager that will supervise caregivers, perform regular in-home checks, and most importantly be available for clients and families to help navigate through tough questions and uncertainties during difficult times.

To speak with a Registered Nurse Care Manager to learn more about our services call 508-927-1213 any time.